Balor Guardian, wtf?

Has anybody tried to see what the effects of Calm Emotions (2nd Cleric, 2nd Bard) spell has on this encounterr?

 

I tried calm emotions earlier today on CO8 4.1 and did not notice any difference (every character that ran kept running). I did win mostly thanks to my 12 lvl fighter with a holy frost brand and my sorcerer's cone of cold and magic missiles.

On a separate note, I was surprised at the low xp (I had 7 characters and each got 278 for their trouble) given for this fight which in imho is the hardest in the game. By contrast, each character got around 4,500 for killing the guardian the water node. I have never had any trouble defeating the water guardian regardless of number of characters.

Any thoughts?

 

I have beaten the balor gaurdian several times this way.You take the fear spell and accept that it lasts 10 rounds. So keep all your characters far enough away that they can launch ranged attacks on the two efreeti. If the summoned Balor appears far enough away from the other you can attack him with a couple of strong fighters with fragarach and the sword of frost Barbarian Rage helps also. You must otherwise keep both Balors busy by summoning help with the other 3 gems until the fear spell wears off. I have used the spell Calm Emotions with very limited Success. After the fear wears off Cast haste on the strong fighters with fragarach and the sword of frost and smash the balors down. Be ready with healing as they explode when they die.
One thing is for sure, you are right, It isn't easy!

 

The key here is to keep the Balor occupied with summoned critters while you magicmissile the crap out of it. You might go thru a vrock, glazbeau, and several earth elementals, but as long as the wizard with the orb is good to go, you can whoop it. I usually have 8 players with 3 wizards for this one. Easily the hardest part of the game and I dread and hate it.

 

The CRs for the node guardians were incorrect. This has been fixed in Co8 5.0 and they should give the proper amount of XP.